The Rusty Wire Service

“ If they saw the enormity of it up front, they might decide they have a choice. You know what I mean ?”  Former Anglo-Irish exec John Bowe explaining to a colleague why it was best not to initially divulge to the Central Bank the true extent of the bank’s losses.  (As reported in the Irish Independent ) Maybe I’ve been gone a long time, perhaps I’ve even picked up some fancy-schmancy English notions since I came to live in London. But the last time I checked, when two people are recorded in conversation, conspiring to wilfully misrepresent financial information to a third party with a view to later extorting sums of money far in excess of those initially requested; that would constitute serious wrongdoing.   But apparently it’s not that clear cut. The real remedy for this situation according to An Taoiseach, is yet another parliamentary inquiry. More throwing good money after bad and kicking the whole affair back into the long grass. In my naïve way, ...

Jesus wept! Where does one start? First of all I love the name: Prism, it’s Man from Uncle meets the Dark Side of the Moon with a dash of the Matrix thrown in for good measure.  Well, as of 24 June (at the time of writing), nobody knew where the Man from Prism was. Had he gone to Ecuador? Was he in Cuba, did he ever leave Moscow?  One thing is certain, Edward Snowden owes his liberty to a number of factors that have little to do with his own ingenuity as some kind of Digital Pimpernel. On the basis of media reports alone, it’s difficult to accurately assess  Mr Snowden’s value as an intelligence asset. His value as international embarrassment asset to Russian and China  however , is beyond doubt. The apparent ease with which Snowden  left Hong Kong  and jetted off to Moscow left The Company looking a little flat-footed. White House spokesman Jay Carney wasn’t buying the technicality schtick that the Chinese authorities were peddling.  He ...

This feature appeared in  Shares Magazine  on 13 June 2013.  'Paypal for Wiseguys' or the birth of a new 'fiat' currency? Whatever is, Bitcoin’s certainly got governments worried. Until a couple of months ago, the world at large was – on the whole – blissfully unaware of the existence of bitcoin. In most cases, even the savvy among the trading and investment communities would not have been able to tell you much more about this subversive electronic currency than a Google search might have revealed. Then along came the Cyprus chapter of the eurozone crisis which reached its crescendo in March/April of this year. With Cypriot bank depositors unable to access their accounts and facing the unappetising prospect of being forced to take swingeing haircuts, it seemed like investors were starting to think the unthinkable and invest in an untried electronic protocol in lieu of hard currency.  The prospect of failing banking systems usually drive up gold pri...